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This photo taken June 14, 2014 shows Smithsonian exhibitions expert Megan Dattoria carring Martha, right, an extinct passenger pigeon, once the most plentiful bird on the planet, who went extinct in September 1914 when Martha died in public at the Cincinnati zoo, for her new exhibit at the Smithsonian's Natural history Museum in Washington.
((AP Photo/Susan Walsh))

One hundred years ago this Sept. 1, the passenger pigeon as a species, went extinct.

It happened right here in Ohio when Martha, the last of the species, took her final breath at the Cincinnati Zoo. The passenger pigeon, once the most abundant bird in North America if not the world with an estimated population of between 3.7 and 5 billion birds, was gone.

And it was our fault.

While the birds were found throughout the United States, they nested in greatest abundance in Ohio and nearby states. At their peak, the birds were so abundant that citizens recount looking up to the sky and not being able to see the sun —- migrating flocks were so large they literally blocked the light. John James Audubon, one of our nation's first naturalists, recounts witnessing a flock so large along the Ohio River that it took three days to pass in full.

Unfortunately, one hundred years ago, we were just beginning to grasp the effect we were having on the natural world. The thought that we could single-handedly drive a native species, one that seemed so infinite and inexhaustible, to extinction was unthinkable.

Massive market hunting of the passenger pigeon to supply meat to the growing cities in the East resulted in the yearly slaughter of tens of millions of birds. When added to the catastrophic loss of nesting sites from the rapid deforestation of the eastern and Midwestern states, the fate of the passenger pigeon was fixed and the speed of its decline was stunning.

In just 50 years' time, the birds went from comprising 40% of the entire migratory bird population in North America to none.

But this tragic story has a silver lining. The passenger pigeon's extinction and later the dramatic decline of iconic species like the whooping crane and American bison , helped create a mainstream conservation movement among Americans. We opened our eyes and came to the realization that our natural resources and treasured wildlife species are too valuable to let perish, that they needed to be protected for future generations to enjoy. Today, this conservation value and ethic still holds just as strong.

For the last 40 years, our nation has maintained an incredible track record of protecting our own imperiled wildlife at risk. That's because in 1973, 60 years after the pigeon's demise, Congress passed the Endangered Species Act (ESA), our nation's most effective wildlife conservation law. Thanks to the ESA, we've been able to save bald eagles, peregrine falcons, Florida manatees, Southern sea otters, American alligators, grizzly bears, black-footed ferrets and hundreds of other species from an inevitable slide towards extinction.

With the passenger pigeon's demise, America saw earlier than many other nations how important it was to conserve our imperiled species and we had the will and the sense of values to follow through. We were the first nation to create a national wildlife refuge system, the first to establish a national park, the first to establish an effective ESA to conserve imperiled wildlife and the first nation to create a national celebration, Earth Day, in the name of conservation. America has always led the world when it comes to conservation. It is a role we should not abandon today.

Though long gone, the passenger pigeon's poignant story remains relevant. We couldn't save Martha's species, but there are many species today facing similar threats that we still can save but only if the ESA remains strong. There are some in Congress who would dramatically weaken or gut the ESA in pursuit of short term economic gain, the same motivation that drove the market hunters of Martha and her species. The American people must reject efforts to weaken the ESA and continue to learn from our own history, so today's species don't follow Martha's path into extinction.

Jamie Rappaport Clark is president and CEO of Defenders of Wildlife. Previously, she was director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from 1997 to 2001.

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